Metal mist clears for fusion power

FEARS that "toxic dust" could choke efforts to get power from nuclear fusion have been allayed.

Hot plasma in fusion reactions bites pieces from the reactor walls, creating metallic dust. The worry is that this could clog instruments and even choke reactions in the experimental reactor ITER, set to fire up in southern France in 2019.

Michael Coppins of Imperial College London noticed that dust grains in existing reactors are often spherical, implying that they had been molten. He calculates that in ITER's plasma such liquid drops should be torn apart by electrical forces before they can cause trouble (Physical Review Letters, DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.104.065003).

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